John 1:43-51 (NIV)

43 The next day Jesus decided
to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”

44 Philip, like Andrew and
Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45 Philip
found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in
the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of
Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

46 “Nazareth! Can anything
good come from there?” Nathanael asked.

“Come and see,” said Philip.

47 When Jesus saw Nathanael
approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom
there is no deceit.”

48 “How do you know me?”
Nathanael asked.

Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the
fig tree before Philip called you.”

49 Then Nathanael declared,
“Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”

50 Jesus said, “You believe[a] because
I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than
that.” 51 He
then added, “Very truly I tell you,[b] you[c] will
see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’[d] the
Son of Man.”

_____________________________

HOMILY –COME AND SEE

ASSIGNMENT –

Write down three short sentences to describe your looks to
a blind person… when finished, please fold them and pass them to the front row.

Do not put your name on them – or make a
statement that identifies who you are

MOVIE CRITIC

FOOD CRITIC

BOOK CRITIC

TRAVEL CRITIC

Subjective view/ own filters /
experiences/ prejudices

LIMITED BY WORDS –

How we
understand words

How words
are triggers of past

Geographical

North – Sugar is granulated or powdered

South – a kiss

North: Hey, “you guys!”

South: Hi “ya’ll!”

________________________

PICTURE IS WORTH 1000 WORDS

A picture is worth a thousand words” is an English
language adage. It refers to the notion that a complex idea can be conveyed
with just a single picture, this picture conveys
its meaning or essence more effectively than a description does.

_________________

COME AND SEE

Evangelism
Definition

the spreading of the
Christian gospel by public preaching or personal witness.

Zealous advocacy of a
cause

Preaching – Sharing
the Good News

Euangelion – Greek for Good News

Writers of Gospels –

Evangelists – giver of Good news

When did SHARING Good News evolve into

ARGUING Good News –

Debating – to convince –

Matthew – Great Commission

Go into the
world

Therefore go and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I
have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of
the age.”

TEACHING-

Sharing
information and experience
Methods – lecture

Practicum

Tell us

Show u s

_________

Show me
and I can do it

______________

Jesus was a teacher – and as he was recruiting his
Disciples, he used these teaching methods to reach these men.

He shared good news

He invited them to experience

Jesus understood that words were not adequate to describe
the experience of being in the presence of a living God, a creator God who
knows us without qualification, and a saving God who loves us just as we are.

He knew they and we have to come and see for
ourselves –

_______________

Question –

Who here has ever won a political opinion
argument and changed their opponents position on the candidate or issue?

Who has ever had someone talk them into changing
their opinion or position on an issue?

Note: If you are unable to attend, please let your team partner know and call another diaconate member to help with collection. Also, please remember to empty trash after church in dumpster. Thank you!

2 When
the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly
a noise came from heaven. It sounded like a strong wind blowing. This noise
filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw
something that looked like flames of fire. The flames were separated and stood
over each person there. 4 They were all filled with the Holy
Spirit, and they began to speak different languages. The Holy Spirit was giving
them the power to do this.

5 There were some godly
Jews in Jerusalem at this time. They were from every country in the world. 6 A
large crowd came together because they heard the noise. They were surprised
because, as the apostles were speaking, everyone heard in their own language.

7 They were all amazed
at this. They did not understand how the apostles could do this. They said,
“Look! These men we hear speaking are all from Galilee.[a]8 But
we hear them in our own languages. How is this possible? We are from all these
different places: 9 Parthia, Media, Elam, Mesopotamia, Judea,
Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, 10 Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, the
areas of Libya near the city of Cyrene, Rome, 11 Crete, and
Arabia. Some of us were born Jews, and others have changed their religion to worship
God like Jews. We are from these different countries, but we can hear these men
in our own languages! We can all understand the great things they are saying
about God.”

12 The people were all
amazed and confused. They asked each other, “What is happening?” 13 But
others were laughing at the apostles, saying they were drunk from too much
wine.

Peter Speaks to the People

14 Then Peter stood up
with the other eleven apostles. He spoke loudly so that all the people could
hear. He said, “My Jewish brothers and all of you who live in Jerusalem, listen
to me. I will tell you something you need to know. Listen carefully. 15 These
men are not drunk as you think; it’s only nine o’clock in the morning. 16 But
Joel the prophet wrote about what you see happening here today. This is what he
wrote:

17 ‘God
says: In the last days
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Your young men will see visions.
Your old men will have special dreams.18 In those days I will pour out my Spirit
on my servants, men and women,
and they will prophesy.19 I will work wonders in the sky above.
I will cause miraculous signs on the earth below.
There will be blood, fire, and thick smoke.20 The sun will be changed into darkness,
and the moon will be as red as blood.
Then the great and glorious day of the Lord will come.21 And everyone who trusts in the Lord[b]
will be saved.’

HOMILY —–

Growing up, Timmy often heard his parents use the phrase,

EXCUSE MY FRENCH after using swear words…

So, when he began fourth grade and the teacher asked the
class if anyone knew French….. Timmy raised his hand…

The rest is history.

_________

Elementary teacher – When I was 8 yrs old my third grade teacher was of Hispanic lineage, Carmelita Moore. She taught us the Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish.

A Bone of contention/opera world when I was singing was that the Opera Snobs of America refused to perform operas in English, but only in the native language in which it was written. This prevented the audience from understanding the story withouta libretto.

________________

Frustration – listening to conversation in another language

Mani Pedi

__________________________

Language is certainly a dividing factor…like a wall.

At this Trauma center, we had 5 TRAUMAS from same accident, and only 1 spoke English. The lag time in giving care was crucial. The doctors had to wait for an interpreter in order to properly examine and care for the patients.

NOT ONLY CULTURAL LANGUAGE DIFFERENCES

VOCATIONAL LANGUAGE

Medical – Doctors often need interpreters because they speak in medical terms unfamiliar to the layperson.

Speakers supposed to deliver their speeches in one of the organization’s six official languages:

English,
French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, and
Chinese.

For which there ARE interpreters

Anyone who travels outside the US knows the relief of hearing their own language, and feeling included again.

Old Testament. STORY OF TOWER OF BABEL presents the mixture of languages as a total breakdown in communication.

YET

PENTECOST – The variety of languages is the setting
for total communication.

Even if my WISH for Universal Translators — Comes a myriad of problem and road-blocks for accuracy –So many words in other languages do not have an exact word
in English

___________

Toska
(Russian)

“A sensation of
great spiritual anguish, often without a specific cause; a longing with nothing
to long for.”

It’s basically
when you feel that something is missing and you know that something is missing,
but you don’t know what exactly it is and it leaves you frustrated.

Duende
(Spanish)

“A work of
art’s mysterious power to deeply move a person.”

Duende is often connected to
flamenco, but it generally describes one of the beauties of artistic
performances of all kinds: they can make you feel things. In Spanish and Latin
American mythology, the Duende is a goblin- and elf-like
creature that makes sure small children behave.

Commuovere
(Italian)

“A heartwarming
story that moved you to tears.”

Basically, any
movie that has a dog

Forelsket
(Norwegian)

“The euphoria
experienced as you begin to fall in love.”

This is
probably one of the best feelings in the world: butterflies, smiles, and so
much romantic oblivion on cloud number nine.

___________________________

There are many drawbacks to interpreting and translating – Not only the fact there are not words for a direct
translation…

We also have the issue of dialect Slang

Different interpretations same word.

Preservatives

If
you happen to find yourself browsing jams in France, be careful you don’t ask
for help with the preservatives. Préservatifs is French for condom.

Brat

In the US and UK, we would say brat to mean a spoilt
child. But in Russia, Poland, Ukraine and Croatia, brat means brother. Possibly
sometimes interchanagle meanings.

Chaps

In England, a jolly good chap is decent person. In
America, it’s a decent pair of leather leggings worn by cowboys to protect
their legs.

Cookie

In Britain and the US, we’re almost in agreement on what a
cookie constitutes.

NOW –

In Hungarian, however, you will need to see me alone after the service to see what cookie means there….

Barf

The British slang for being sick means snow in Farsi, Urdu
and Hindi.

______________________

THEN
WE HAVE TO REMEMBER—

Even communicating in our own language does not guarantee
clear understanding…

Maybe this is why God didn’t see a need to make everyone
miraculously speak the same language…

God did not send the Holy Spirit into each of them and change them all into the same thing…

God did not erase their differences… but celebrated their differences –

God reminded us that our worth and value are not measured by our sameness or differences….

By meeting these many cultures and races where they
were – God embraced the fact that God created us all
wonderfully DIFFERENT.

REMEMBER the scripture said:

7 They were all amazed
at this. They did not understand how the apostles could do this. They said, “Look!
These men we hear speaking are all from Galilee.[a]8 But
we hear them in our own languages. How is this possible? We are from all these
different places: 9 Parthia, Media, Elam, Mesopotamia, Judea,
Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, 10 Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, the
areas of Libya near the city of Cyrene, Rome, 11 Crete, and
Arabia. Some of us were born Jews, and others have changed their religion to
worship God like Jews. We are from these different countries, but we can hear
these men in our own languages! We can all understand the great things they are
saying about God.”

12 The people were all
amazed and confused. They asked each other, “What is happening?” 13 But
others were laughing at the apostles, saying they were drunk from too much
wine.

____________________

At Pentecost… for that moment—everyone was hearing the same message – just for them – in their own language

With their own context….

SOUNDS MIRACULOUS Doesn’t it…?

But we actually experience Pentecost every time we receive
what God has for us…

BIGGEST FEARS entering Ministry

Misguiding Misinforming Misinterpreting

___________________________

But, like the Apostles at PENTECOST –

I only provide the words –

God provides the interpretation —

_____________

Remember the blue dress… gold dress on the internet in 2015?

Someone posted online a picture of themselves at a Scottish
wedding and was confused when comments referred to different colors –

Blue and black and
gold and white.

________________

JIM’S CLASS

Discussed the
sermon after the service.

It was amazing how many different messages were received.

_________

EVERYONE HEARS A DIFFERENT MESSAGE…. according to our individual needs…. and that is GOOD NEWS!!!

An
acronym for “Select Catch Received on the Day” – it can be Cod, Pollack,
Haddock – It was the LAST catch of the day and on top of the pile and the
freshest.

Why do some coins have ridges on the edges and
some are smooth?

Originally coins made from precious
metals had smooth edges. This made it possible for unscrupulous people to shave
off some of the metals and then melt down the shavings to sell. Coins that have
ridges contain precious metals; those that are smooth are usually copper and
nickel.

3. Why
is there a piece of fabric, often with an extra button
attached, inside our new clothes?

The extra material and button that comes with your new clothes has long been
thought of as additional cloth to patch up holes, and provide a spare
button. In reality, the extra material is actually used to test out how
different laundry detergents would react to your clothes!

Why do
tailored shirts have a little fabric loop on the back, on level with the
shoulder blades?

The
little loop that is on the back of
most of your shirts is there for a
couple of reasons. Firstly, and probably
the most obvious, is to hang your
shirt on a hanger. In the past, men would also cut this loop off of the back of their shirts if they began dating a girl to signal that they were in a relationship.

____________________________

Two year – three year old
toddlers begin asking why. With every statement, they respond why.

No matter how many times we
offer answers, they come back with why.

At the time it can make us
want to pull our hair out… but, each WHY peels back layer –

WHY – another layer

WHY – another layer

Scientific research works something like a three year old…

With each experiment – we ask WHY

Until we find a solution…

WHY DO WE ASK QUESTIONS?

Is it good or bad to ask questions?

What do we hope to gain from asking questions?

We hunger for absolutes.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know….

We search for the ultimate explanation to our questions….

Answers bring
resolution –answers relieve tension and
bring comfort.

Even wrong answers bring temporary relief…

___________________________

QUESTION –what is the first thing one does after a
crisis/disaster/accident?

Rationalize WHY it
happened… as if having the answer will lessen the pain

An answer supposedly
provides resolution and relief—

Even if the answer is wrong

OFTEN the go-to phrase is “IT WAS GOD’S WILL “so we avoid remaining in
the question of WHY something happened.

And this answer always results in a weak resolution… AND causes
MORE questions.

So, Are
questions BAD?

Is asking questions bad?

Is it bad to doubt?

Are
Questions the problem…

Or are Bad and incomplete answers are the problem??

What
about UNANSWERED questions?

______________

Unanswered questions can be uncomfortable things to hang
onto.

They beg for answers, and in living with the unknown we are asked to
bear an aching tension

Can we endure unanswered questions?

-Is the world
flat?

-Are we the center of
the universe?

-How can we use lightning to our advantage?

–How deep is the ocean?

Unanswered questions = action/momentum

Answers = stop/end

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS is also called LIVING IN THE QUESTIONS…_____

__________________________________

Most of us – probably all of us – live with questions.

DAY TO DAY – what is bank balance?

Will I get to the market?

When am I going to wash the car?

________

We all
have THEOLOGICAL questions –

Although many won’t voice them for fear of being judged as Doubters, blasphemous

Poor Thomas Doubting Thomas – Questioning Thomas

Wanted to know for himself Wasn’t going to accept what was told to him

And
because of his questioning – he was labeled as an unbeliever – or less than the
rest of the disciples.

But in a school setting – questions are welcome and expected…

Questions
are necessary for leaning/..

Teachers
do not view questions as a threat to their integrity or quality of teaching.

Questions
mean someone is listening, trying and wanting to know more…

To go deeper…YET

Growing up and still in some churches today:

Questions considered unfaithful

have used questions against us –

questions mean we are not accepting God’s word/Bible

Taught
Bible was without ERROR –

Taken at face value without understanding the context of time and people of the time.

Taught to
never question the BIBLE. _____________

Interesting that as ‘students’ in Sunday School – certain questions were taboo – Questions that the teacher could not answer — — WE WERE TOLD TO take it on FAITH. _____________________________

It was the default ANSWER – Take it on FAITH….

In regards to faith, how much DO we know for certain…

we use FAITH to explain away something that no longer makes sense – nor can be explained?

Faith was
always the answer given to head off uncomfortable questions.

But it was often an unsatisfactory and hollow answer that only instigated more questions.

We are told — WE MUST HAVE FAITH – but we need more information… in which to have faith…

When the idea of faith is used in this way, Christianity becomes more and more about accepting things that are less and less acceptable, And of believing things that are more and more unbelievable. And this hurts Christianity.

IT’S A
DOOR CLOSER!!!

Questions are important— and may even more important than answers.

Questions open possibilities Answers close them…

Living the Questions: Answers Just Get
in the Way

By calling ourselves progressive, we mean that we are Christians
who find more grace in the search for meaning than in absolute certainty, in
the questions than in the answers.

North Side Christian Church – IS A SAFE place to ask questions…to doubt… to wonder -It is a place where we can doubt and explore

Catholic author
Richard Rohr writes, “Jesus is not a giver of
advice. He doesn’t give us a neat list of ten ways to be closer to
God.

He does not
provide easy answers. Instead he asks hard questions.

In that he is
more like the Zen master who asks questions to take us beyond the
obvious to something deeper.

“Easy answers can give us a sense of finality. By entertaining hard questions God has a chance to change us.”

15 When one of those at the
table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat
at the feast in the kingdom of God.”

16 Jesus replied: “A certain
man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 17 At the time of the banquet
he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything
is now ready.’

18 “But they all alike began
to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and
see it. Please excuse me.’

19 “Another said, ‘I have just
bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’

20 “Still another said, ‘I
just got married, so I can’t come.’

21 “The servant came back and
reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and
ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town
and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’

22 “‘Sir,’ the servant said,
‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’

23 “Then the master told his
servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so
that my house will be full. 24 I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of
my banquet.’”

Matthew 14:13-21
(NIV)

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand

13 When Jesus heard what had
happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this,
the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When Jesus landed and saw a
large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

15 As evening approached, the
disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already
getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves
some food.”

16 Jesus replied, “They
do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

17 “We have here only five
loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.

18 “Bring them here to
me,” he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the
five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke
the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave
them to the people. 20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up
twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate
was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­__________________________________________________

Homily “ALL means
ALL”

By calling ourselves
progressive, we mean that we are Christians who understand the sharing of bread
and wine in Jesus’ name to be a realization of the vision of God’s feast for
all peoples.

On the slip of paper –

Please list the 11 people you would invite to your last meal
–

Living or Dead – (and not in this room)

Eleven people who you would want to spend the last hours of
your life with at a meal.

Then

Add the name of the person you would NEVER invite — you can just put initials if you fear
someone seeing your response.

______________________

Now, hold onto that paper and look at it again later –

__________________________

____________________________

As Disciples of Christ… our identity statement says:

DOC IDENTITY

We are Disciples of Christ, a movement for
wholeness in a fragmented world.

As part of the one body of Christ,

we welcome all to the Lord’s Table

as God has welcomed us.

Each week when I offer a communion meditation and invitation
– it is not I who is inviting, I am merely passing along the message that we
are ALL invited by God.

It is up to us to answer – we have a choice to accept or
decline —

But ALL are invited.

Frederick
Buechner

“The place where God calls you is the place
where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

CLOSED COMMUNION

conclusion

The Orthodox Christian
Church, like Her Lord, is not an imaginary and invisible abstraction.

The tradition of any church
is concrete and visible, expressed throughout history by real people in a
tangible continuum of faith and practice (whether for 2,000 years or two
years).

Like the Holy Trinity, the
Church is a community, a real communion expressed and embodied by a shared
faith and way of life.

ORTHODOX

The maintenance of real
communion necessitates borders and boundaries, both doctrinal and disciplinary.

If a church is to be
faithful to its own tradition, the door will be opened to some things and
closed to others.

But it is
how we understand CLOSED and OPEN –

practice
of CLOSED communion –

is
believed by that tradition to ACTUALLY be OPEN to ALL –

but the ALL actually means
those who formally embrace the traditions beliefs and unite themselves to it.

OPEN to those who conform…

CLOSED to those who do not…

A door that is always open
is not a door any more.

Certainly true of the
Orthodox Church.

Some idea that limiting
entrance enhances the significance –

_________________

Illustration:

A pastor once shared this story…

He said:

He told of going to his
mother’s hair dresser for a hair cut.

After talking to her he thought she had some interest in
knowing more about God.

He told his mother
that he thought she wanted
to know about God.

His
mother responded:

“No way! She is on her fifth husband and is living in sin.”

______________

John said: “Mom the next time you get your hair
done at the beauty
salon ask her if she is
interested in spiritual
things?

The next time she went to have her hair done she prayed
in her heart as she was taking
a seat in the beauty shop
chair.

“God you know I
don’t want to talk to her about her faith because she’s not the kind of person
I want to associate with. If you
want me to talk to her then have her ask me first.”

The first thing the beauty operator said when she approached
was,

“I understand you and your husband have a Bible study. Do you mind if I come sometime?”

She said that her mother was Jewish and her father a Roman
Catholic.

Her mother made her go to the synagogue on Saturday and when she
came home her dad made her take the rosary and make confession of her sin.

She grew up confused and turned to alcohol for comfort and she
could drink with the best of them.

To get help she went to AA meetings but could not think of her
“higher power” as God so she called her “higher power” Ralph.

At one of the AA meetings a guy came in half drunk. He stood up
and said; “My name is Ralph and I’m an alcoholic.”

The hair dresser said at that point in her life she wanted to
know the true God.

She and her husband started attending the bible study of John’s
parents.

_______________________________

ILLUSTRATIONS

The Pharisees could not
understand why the common people, outcasts of society followed Jesus who
claimed to be a Rabbi and Teacher. The kind of people Jesus ate with and
fellowshipped with would not be tolerated in their homes.

Jesus did not go along
with the Jewish customs of His day.

He invited all to His
Table. There is room for all at God’s Table.

When feeding the 5000,
Jesus did hot single out who could or could not share in the meal.

This was in direct
contrast to the Pharisees who believed that only certain people are welcome
at God’s Table.

That is how most traditions viewed communion until recently –

Only children of members of a tradition would be baptized –

Only those who were members could partake in the meal –

Everyone was welcome… as long as they had joined the family…

In my childhood tradition, we celebrated Communion only 4 times
a year…

Prior to serving – the minister made it clear that this table
was for members of our church ONLY… baptized into the faith, and members of our
particular church.

Last fall the Chaplain Residents were participating in a
Celebration Mass, and before the Eucharist, each was told NOT to participate in
the bread and wine unless they were Catholic.

Not only were they not invited… they were individually excluded…

Does this fulfill our understanding of God’s mission for t he
world…

________________________________________

Tony Campolo Throws a Party for a Prostitute

In his book The Kingdom of God Is a Party, Tony Campolo
relates an experience he had late one night in Hawaii.

Up a
side street I found a little place that was still open. I went in, took
a seat on one of the stools at the counter, and waited to be served.
This was one of those sleazy places that deserves the name, “greasy
spoon.” I did not even touch the menu. I was afraid that if I opened
the thing something gruesome would crawl out. But it was the only place I could
find.

The fat
guy behind the counter came over and asked me, “What d’ya want?”

I said I
wanted a cup of coffee and a donut.

He
poured a cup of coffee, wiped his grimy hand on his smudged apron, and then he
grabbed a donut off the shelf behind him. I’m a realist. I know that in the
back room of that restaurant, donuts are probably dropped on the floor and
kicked around. But when everything is out front where I could see it, I really
would have appreciated it if he had used a pair of tongs and placed the donut
on some wax paper.

As I
sat there munching on my donut and sipping my coffee at 3:30 in the
morning, the door of the diner suddenly swung open and, to my discomfort, in marched
eight or nine provocative and boisterous prostitutes.

It was
a small place, and they sat on either side of me.

Their talk was loud and crude. I felt completely out of
place and was just about to make my getaway when I overheard the woman beside
me say, “Tomorrow’s my birthday. I’m going to be 39.”

Her
“friend” responded in a nasty tone, “So what do you want from
me? A birthday party? What do you want? Ya want me to get you a cake and sing
‘Happy Birthday’?”

“Come
on,” said the woman sitting next to me. “Why do you have to be so
mean? I was just telling you, that’s all. Why do you have to put me down? I was
just telling you it was my birthday. I don’t want anything from you. I mean,
why should you give me a birthday party? I’ve never had a birthday party in my
whole life. Why should I have one now?”

When I
heard that, I made a decision. I sat and waited until the women had left. Then I
called over the fat guy behind the counter, and I asked him, “Do they come
in here every night?”

“Because
I heard her say that tomorrow is her birthday,” I told him. “What do
you say you and I do something about that? What do you think about us throwing a birthday party for her—right here— tomorrow night?”

A cute
smile slowly crossed his chubby cheeks, and he answered with measured delight,
“That’s great! I like it! That’s a great idea!”

Calling
to his wife, who did the cooking in the back room, he shouted, “Hey! Come out here!
This guy’s got a great idea. Tomorrow’s Agnes’s birthday.

This
guy wants us to go in with him and throw a birthday party for her—right
here—tomorrow night!”

His
wife came out of the back room all bright and smiley. She said, “That’s
wonderful! You know Agnes is one of those people who is really nice and kind,
and nobody does anything nice and kind for her.”

“Look,”
I told them, “if it’s okay with you, I’ll get back here tomorrow morning
about 2:30 and decorate the place. I’ll even get a birthday cake!”

At 2:30 the next morning, I was back at the diner. I had picked up some crepe-paper decorations at the store and had made a sign out of big pieces of cardboard that read, “Happy Birthday, Agnes!”

I decorated the diner from one end to the other. I had that
diner looking good.

The
woman who did the cooking must have gotten the word out on the street, because
by 3:15 every prostitute in Honolulu was in the place.

It was
wall-to-wall prostitutesand me!

At 3:30
on the dot, the door of the diner swung open, and in came Agnes and her friend.

I had
everybody ready (after all, I was kind of the M.C. of the affair) and when they
came in we all screamed, “Happy birthday!”

Never
have I seen a person so flabbergastedso stunnedso shaken. Her mouth fell
open. Her legs seemed to buckle a bit. Her friend grabbed her arm to steady
her.

As she was led to sit on one of the stools along the counter, we
all sang “Happy Birthday”‘ to her.

As we came to the end of our singing with “happy birthday,
dear Agnes, happy birthday to you,” her eyes moistened. Then, when the
birthday cake with all the candles on it was carried out, she lost it and just
openly cried.

Harry
gruffly mumbled, “Blow out the candles, Agnes! Come on! Blow out the
candles! If you don’t blow out the candles, I’m gonna hafta blow out the
candles.”

And, after an endless few
seconds, he did.

Then he handed her a knife and told her,

“Cut the cake, Agnes. Yo, Agnes, we all want some cake.”

Agnes looked
down at the cake. Then without taking her eyes off it, she slowly and softly
said,

“Look, Harry, is it all right with you if
II mean is it okay if I
kind of

what I
want to ask you isis it O.K. if I keep the cake a little while?

I mean, is it all right if we don’t eat it right away?”

Harry
shrugged and answered,

“Sure!
It’s O.K. If you want to keep the cake, keep the cake.

Take it
home, if you want to.”

“Can
I?” she asked. Then, looking at me, she said, “I live just down the
street a couple of doors. I want to take the cake home, okay? I’ll be right back. Honest!”

She got
off the stool, picked up the cake, and carrying it like it was the Holy Grail,
walked slowly toward the door.

As we
all just stood there motionless, she left.

When
the door closed, there was a stunned silence in the place. Not knowing what
else to do, I broke the silence by saying,

“What
do you say we pray?”

Looking
back on it now, it seems more than strange for a sociologist to be leading a
prayer meeting with a bunch of prostitutes in a diner in Honolulu at 3:30 in
the morning.

But
then it just felt like the right thing to do. I prayed for Agnes. I prayed for
her salvation. I prayed that her life would be changed and that God would be
good to her.

When I
finished, Harry leaned over the counter and with a trace of hostility in his
voice, he said,

“Hey! You never told me you were a
preacher. What kind of church do you belong to?”

In one
of those moments when just the right words came, I answered,

“I belong to a church that throws
birthday parties for whores at 3:30 in the morning.”

Harry
waited a moment and then almost sneered as he answered, “No you don’t.
There’s no church like that.

If
there was, I’d join it. I’d join a church like that!”

Wouldn’t
we all? Wouldn’t we all like to join a church that throws birthday parties for
whores at 3:30 in the morning?

Well,
that’s the kind of church that Jesus came to create!

Jesus changed the game –

He did not fall in line –
and follow the status quo —

He came to remind us of
God’s vision for the world… unity – love — equality — harmony — peace —

At his table – he had 12
disciples to share the meal….. but none of them qualified to be called
faithful…

1 betrayed him

1 denied him three times

The rest ran away and
abandoned him

But he invited them to dine
with him any way. They were welcome in spite of how much or how little faith
they had.

They didn’t meet the
standards – but were welcome anyway…

We can’t claim to be worthy
to sit at this table… but we are invited and welcome.

Scholars like Borg and
Crossan consider the stories of Jesus’ open tables to be the most powerful and
influential examples of God’s love for ALL people.

Jesus dined with Zacchaeus
– a tax collector

He dined with Levi –
another tax collector and invited him to
come and follow him.

Jesus dined with Simon – of
elite social status, when a woman of lowly status crashed the dinner and
anointed his feet. He welcomed her, when his host wanted her removed.

Feeding the 5000 was not
his responsibility – these were people from ALL backgrounds – women and
childrens who had no status

His tables had no seat of
honor…no hierarchy – and no limit. All were invited and all were welcome.

WE are
not just celebrating the last meal when we come to the table – we are
celebrating ALL the meals…

because Jesus as Borg says,
“One of Jesus’ most characteristic activities was an OPEN and INCLUSIVE table.”

John Dominic Crossan writes
that Jesus’ open table fellowship is a core teaching component and symbol of
his life.

It is a view of absolute
equality of people that denies the validity of any discrimination between them.

When we come to the table,
we are living out an expression of God’s love –

In sharing the bread and
cup unconditionally – as God’s love is shared unconditionally –

15 When one of those at the
table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat
at the feast in the kingdom of God.”

16 Jesus replied: “A certain
man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 17 At the time of the banquet
he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything
is now ready.’

18 “But they all alike began
to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and
see it. Please excuse me.’

19 “Another said, ‘I have just
bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’

20 “Still another said, ‘I
just got married, so I can’t come.’

21 “The servant came back and
reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and
ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town
and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’

22 “‘Sir,’ the servant said,
‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’

23 “Then the master told his
servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so
that my house will be full. 24 I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of
my banquet.’”

Matthew 14:13-21
(NIV)

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand

13 When Jesus heard what had
happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this,
the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When Jesus landed and saw a
large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

15 As evening approached, the
disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already
getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves
some food.”

16 Jesus replied, “They
do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

17 “We have here only five
loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.

18 “Bring them here to
me,” he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the
five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke
the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave
them to the people. 20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up
twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate
was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­__________________________________________________

Homily “ALL means
ALL”

By calling ourselves
progressive, we mean that we are Christians who understand the sharing of bread
and wine in Jesus’ name to be a realization of the vision of God’s feast for
all peoples.

On the slip of paper –

Please list the 11 people you would invite to your last meal
–

Living or Dead – (and not in this room)

Eleven people who you would want to spend the last hours of
your life with at a meal.

Then

Add the name of the person you would NEVER invite — you can just put initials if you fear
someone seeing your response.

______________________

Now, hold onto that paper and look at it again later –

__________________________

____________________________

As Disciples of Christ… our identity statement says:

DOC IDENTITY

We are Disciples of Christ, a movement for
wholeness in a fragmented world.

As part of the one body of Christ,

we welcome all to the Lord’s Table

as God has welcomed us.

Each week when I offer a communion meditation and invitation
– it is not I who is inviting, I am merely passing along the message that we
are ALL invited by God.

It is up to us to answer – we have a choice to accept or
decline —

But ALL are invited.

Frederick
Buechner

“The place where God calls you is the place
where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

CLOSED COMMUNION

conclusion

The Orthodox Christian
Church, like Her Lord, is not an imaginary and invisible abstraction.

The tradition of any church
is concrete and visible, expressed throughout history by real people in a
tangible continuum of faith and practice (whether for 2,000 years or two
years).

Like the Holy Trinity, the
Church is a community, a real communion expressed and embodied by a shared
faith and way of life.

ORTHODOX

The maintenance of real
communion necessitates borders and boundaries, both doctrinal and disciplinary.

If a church is to be
faithful to its own tradition, the door will be opened to some things and
closed to others.

But it is
how we understand CLOSED and OPEN –

practice
of CLOSED communion –

is
believed by that tradition to ACTUALLY be OPEN to ALL –

but the ALL actually means
those who formally embrace the traditions beliefs and unite themselves to it.

OPEN to those who conform…

CLOSED to those who do not…

A door that is always open
is not a door any more.

Certainly true of the
Orthodox Church.

Some idea that limiting
entrance enhances the significance –

_________________

Illustration:

A pastor once shared this story…

He said:

He told of going to his
mother’s hair dresser for a hair cut.

After talking to her he thought she had some interest in
knowing more about God.

He told his mother
that he thought she wanted
to know about God.

His
mother responded:

“No way! She is on her fifth husband and is living in sin.”

______________

John said: “Mom the next time you get your hair
done at the beauty
salon ask her if she is
interested in spiritual
things?

The next time she went to have her hair done she prayed
in her heart as she was taking
a seat in the beauty shop
chair.

“God you know I
don’t want to talk to her about her faith because she’s not the kind of person
I want to associate with. If you
want me to talk to her then have her ask me first.”

The first thing the beauty operator said when she approached
was,

“I understand you and your husband have a Bible study. Do you mind if I come sometime?”

She said that her mother was Jewish and her father a Roman
Catholic.

Her mother made her go to the synagogue on Saturday and when she
came home her dad made her take the rosary and make confession of her sin.

She grew up confused and turned to alcohol for comfort and she
could drink with the best of them.

To get help she went to AA meetings but could not think of her
“higher power” as God so she called her “higher power” Ralph.

At one of the AA meetings a guy came in half drunk. He stood up
and said; “My name is Ralph and I’m an alcoholic.”

The hair dresser said at that point in her life she wanted to
know the true God.

She and her husband started attending the bible study of John’s
parents.

_______________________________

ILLUSTRATIONS

The Pharisees could not
understand why the common people, outcasts of society followed Jesus who
claimed to be a Rabbi and Teacher. The kind of people Jesus ate with and
fellowshipped with would not be tolerated in their homes.

Jesus did not go along
with the Jewish customs of His day.

He invited all to His
Table. There is room for all at God’s Table.

When feeding the 5000,
Jesus did hot single out who could or could not share in the meal.

This was in direct
contrast to the Pharisees who believed that only certain people are welcome
at God’s Table.

That is how most traditions viewed communion until recently –

Only children of members of a tradition would be baptized –

Only those who were members could partake in the meal –

Everyone was welcome… as long as they had joined the family…

In my childhood tradition, we celebrated Communion only 4 times
a year…

Prior to serving – the minister made it clear that this table
was for members of our church ONLY… baptized into the faith, and members of our
particular church.

Last fall the Chaplain Residents were participating in a
Celebration Mass, and before the Eucharist, each was told NOT to participate in
the bread and wine unless they were Catholic.

Not only were they not invited… they were individually excluded…

Does this fulfill our understanding of God’s mission for t he
world…

________________________________________

Tony Campolo Throws a Party for a Prostitute

In his book The Kingdom of God Is a Party, Tony Campolo
relates an experience he had late one night in Hawaii.

Up a
side street I found a little place that was still open. I went in, took
a seat on one of the stools at the counter, and waited to be served.
This was one of those sleazy places that deserves the name, “greasy
spoon.” I did not even touch the menu. I was afraid that if I opened
the thing something gruesome would crawl out. But it was the only place I could
find.

The fat
guy behind the counter came over and asked me, “What d’ya want?”

I said I
wanted a cup of coffee and a donut.

He
poured a cup of coffee, wiped his grimy hand on his smudged apron, and then he
grabbed a donut off the shelf behind him. I’m a realist. I know that in the
back room of that restaurant, donuts are probably dropped on the floor and
kicked around. But when everything is out front where I could see it, I really
would have appreciated it if he had used a pair of tongs and placed the donut
on some wax paper.

As I
sat there munching on my donut and sipping my coffee at 3:30 in the
morning, the door of the diner suddenly swung open and, to my discomfort, in marched
eight or nine provocative and boisterous prostitutes.

It was
a small place, and they sat on either side of me.

Their talk was loud and crude. I felt completely out of
place and was just about to make my getaway when I overheard the woman beside
me say, “Tomorrow’s my birthday. I’m going to be 39.”

Her
“friend” responded in a nasty tone, “So what do you want from
me? A birthday party? What do you want? Ya want me to get you a cake and sing
‘Happy Birthday’?”

“Come
on,” said the woman sitting next to me. “Why do you have to be so
mean? I was just telling you, that’s all. Why do you have to put me down? I was
just telling you it was my birthday. I don’t want anything from you. I mean,
why should you give me a birthday party? I’ve never had a birthday party in my
whole life. Why should I have one now?”

When I
heard that, I made a decision. I sat and waited until the women had left. Then I
called over the fat guy behind the counter, and I asked him, “Do they come
in here every night?”

“Because
I heard her say that tomorrow is her birthday,” I told him. “What do
you say you and I do something about that? What do you think about us throwing a birthday party for her—right here— tomorrow night?”

A cute
smile slowly crossed his chubby cheeks, and he answered with measured delight,
“That’s great! I like it! That’s a great idea!”

Calling
to his wife, who did the cooking in the back room, he shouted, “Hey! Come out here!
This guy’s got a great idea. Tomorrow’s Agnes’s birthday.

This
guy wants us to go in with him and throw a birthday party for her—right
here—tomorrow night!”

His
wife came out of the back room all bright and smiley. She said, “That’s
wonderful! You know Agnes is one of those people who is really nice and kind,
and nobody does anything nice and kind for her.”

“Look,”
I told them, “if it’s okay with you, I’ll get back here tomorrow morning
about 2:30 and decorate the place. I’ll even get a birthday cake!”

At 2:30 the next morning, I was back at the diner. I had picked up some crepe-paper decorations at the store and had made a sign out of big pieces of cardboard that read, “Happy Birthday, Agnes!”

I decorated the diner from one end to the other. I had that
diner looking good.

The
woman who did the cooking must have gotten the word out on the street, because
by 3:15 every prostitute in Honolulu was in the place.

It was
wall-to-wall prostitutesand me!

At 3:30
on the dot, the door of the diner swung open, and in came Agnes and her friend.

I had
everybody ready (after all, I was kind of the M.C. of the affair) and when they
came in we all screamed, “Happy birthday!”

Never
have I seen a person so flabbergastedso stunnedso shaken. Her mouth fell
open. Her legs seemed to buckle a bit. Her friend grabbed her arm to steady
her.

As she was led to sit on one of the stools along the counter, we
all sang “Happy Birthday”‘ to her.

As we came to the end of our singing with “happy birthday,
dear Agnes, happy birthday to you,” her eyes moistened. Then, when the
birthday cake with all the candles on it was carried out, she lost it and just
openly cried.

Harry
gruffly mumbled, “Blow out the candles, Agnes! Come on! Blow out the
candles! If you don’t blow out the candles, I’m gonna hafta blow out the
candles.”

And, after an endless few
seconds, he did.

Then he handed her a knife and told her,

“Cut the cake, Agnes. Yo, Agnes, we all want some cake.”

Agnes looked
down at the cake. Then without taking her eyes off it, she slowly and softly
said,

“Look, Harry, is it all right with you if
II mean is it okay if I
kind of

what I
want to ask you isis it O.K. if I keep the cake a little while?

I mean, is it all right if we don’t eat it right away?”

Harry
shrugged and answered,

“Sure!
It’s O.K. If you want to keep the cake, keep the cake.

Take it
home, if you want to.”

“Can
I?” she asked. Then, looking at me, she said, “I live just down the
street a couple of doors. I want to take the cake home, okay? I’ll be right back. Honest!”

She got
off the stool, picked up the cake, and carrying it like it was the Holy Grail,
walked slowly toward the door.

As we
all just stood there motionless, she left.

When
the door closed, there was a stunned silence in the place. Not knowing what
else to do, I broke the silence by saying,

“What
do you say we pray?”

Looking
back on it now, it seems more than strange for a sociologist to be leading a
prayer meeting with a bunch of prostitutes in a diner in Honolulu at 3:30 in
the morning.

But
then it just felt like the right thing to do. I prayed for Agnes. I prayed for
her salvation. I prayed that her life would be changed and that God would be
good to her.

When I
finished, Harry leaned over the counter and with a trace of hostility in his
voice, he said,

“Hey! You never told me you were a
preacher. What kind of church do you belong to?”

In one
of those moments when just the right words came, I answered,

“I belong to a church that throws
birthday parties for whores at 3:30 in the morning.”

Harry
waited a moment and then almost sneered as he answered, “No you don’t.
There’s no church like that.

If
there was, I’d join it. I’d join a church like that!”

Wouldn’t
we all? Wouldn’t we all like to join a church that throws birthday parties for
whores at 3:30 in the morning?

Well,
that’s the kind of church that Jesus came to create!

Jesus changed the game –

He did not fall in line –
and follow the status quo —

He came to remind us of
God’s vision for the world… unity – love — equality — harmony — peace —

At his table – he had 12
disciples to share the meal….. but none of them qualified to be called
faithful…

1 betrayed him

1 denied him three times

The rest ran away and
abandoned him

But he invited them to dine
with him any way. They were welcome in spite of how much or how little faith
they had.

They didn’t meet the
standards – but were welcome anyway…

We can’t claim to be worthy
to sit at this table… but we are invited and welcome.

Scholars like Borg and
Crossan consider the stories of Jesus’ open tables to be the most powerful and
influential examples of God’s love for ALL people.

Jesus dined with Zacchaeus
– a tax collector

He dined with Levi –
another tax collector and invited him to
come and follow him.

Jesus dined with Simon – of
elite social status, when a woman of lowly status crashed the dinner and
anointed his feet. He welcomed her, when his host wanted her removed.

Feeding the 5000 was not
his responsibility – these were people from ALL backgrounds – women and
childrens who had no status

His tables had no seat of
honor…no hierarchy – and no limit. All were invited and all were welcome.

WE are
not just celebrating the last meal when we come to the table – we are
celebrating ALL the meals…

because Jesus as Borg says,
“One of Jesus’ most characteristic activities was an OPEN and INCLUSIVE table.”

John Dominic Crossan writes
that Jesus’ open table fellowship is a core teaching component and symbol of
his life.

It is a view of absolute
equality of people that denies the validity of any discrimination between them.

When we come to the table,
we are living out an expression of God’s love –

In sharing the bread and
cup unconditionally – as God’s love is shared unconditionally –

22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said:
“People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For
as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even
found an altar with this inscription: to
an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and
this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

24 “The
God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and
does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not
served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives
everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man
he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he
marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God
did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find
him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we
live and move and have our being.’[a] As some
of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’[b]

Different
Religions

Different goals

Different
problems

Different
approaches

Different
understandings

Different
filters

Different fears

Different loves

Renditions of
Songs

Who likes liver
and onions?

Who eats oysters
on half shell?

Who likes the
color pink?

Who would live
in an underground home?

Bigotry —- Intolerance toward those who hold different opinions from oneself.

Stronger than prejudice — Meanspirited

Racism —- Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.

Prejudice— preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience.

______________________________________________

Bible Belt – The Story of My original tradition —

John Wesley, a
Methodist elder had died and was walking up to the pearly gates –

St. Peter
asked his name and went about checking his BOOK of LIFE to see if the elder’s
name was written there.

Upon finding his name,
St. Peter welcomed John Wesley, and went about showing him through the
gates and into the heavenly mansion.

Walking down the hall, St. Peter pointed out the football
field size library, the room filled with thousands of Musical recordings, and
the banquet hall with a table of food so long, John could not see the end of
it…

As they went on, they passed by open rooms of Native
Americans, sitting and pounding drums –

They passed by a room of Catholics playing Bingo and drinking wine.

Soon they walked by a room of Jews who were eating Matza
Ball soup and Challa Bread –

As they continued through the mansion, the cacophony of
sound began to fade… until they were
walking in silence.

They turned down another hall and John noticed the doors
on all of the rooms were closed.

He started to ask St. Peter about the doors, and St.
Peter quickly covered John’s mouth and shhhushed him….

St. Peter took John’s hand and quickly walked him to the
end of the hallway and out a side door.

John looked at St. Peter in confusion – and St. Peter
apologized for his abrupt behavior, but if they had made any noise,

The Baptists would have discovered they weren’t the only
ones here.

Catholic vs Southern Baptist

Catholic –
Not Christian but Catholic

Idol worshipers

Put Mary above Jesus

Said Mary Mother of God

Pope comes before God

Infant Baptism is meritless- not scriptural

SB –
Not Christian but Protestant

Believer’s baptism – baptism, which was seen as an attack on the “salvation by works” theology widely taught by the Roman Catholic Church

Christians waged crusades under the banner of the cross. Not only did they kill Muslims,

they also murdered other Christians over doctrinal matters and unleashed centuries of systematic anti-Semitism.

ISIS
militants have tortured, raped, kidnapped,
and executed Christians in Iraq and
Syria, despite claiming that Christians who pay a special tax (jizya) would
receive ISIS’s protection.

According
to a July 2016 report by the Hudson
Institute, ISIS’s jizya option is a
deceptive propaganda ploy used to extort Christians with no regard for their protection or religious freedom. The group
urges attacks on Christians outside of its territorial strongholds.
(Source: Hudson Institute)

Perhaps
what’s wrong with Christianity —is we
have LEFT – the original WAY —

what people called the movement of the first followers of Jesus –

The WAY that was open to all people — it was a new way of life –

a change or transformation of life… A dynamic act of DOING –

Gradually,
it changed into what we call
RELIGION…

It is A static BELIEF system –

_____________________________

Is Christianity a
RELIGION ??

Well, yes and no.

Yes, it is a
religion. It has creeds and rules and beliefs, and Holy Scriptures, and
official bodies, and adherents, and heretics, and saints, and on and on.

And no, it is not a religion. At least, if we use the term accurately…

The word religion comes from the Latin word “Re-Ligare”. “

Ligare” means “to bind” or to “connect”.

Adding the “re” before “ligare” causes the word to
mean “Re-Bind” or “Re-Connect.”

So, if Christianity is A BELIEF SYSTEM —

Then Christians are identified on the basis of their BELIEF not how they LIVE

For six days of the week- Life for most Christians is indistinguishable from that of nonbelievers.

If our Christianity
is a BELIEF SYSTEM – and When we believe
that only we have the truth, we become elitist, aggressive for converts, overly
protective of our system, and thereby consider all who would differ from us our
enemies.

US verses THEM

We have the ONLY
answer –

I do not understand why something is valuable only if it can be had be a few – “I have it and you don’t” “I’m saved, and you’re not”

__________________________________

We all know church
goers like that – or have in our lifetime – and probably thought something like
that – whew, I am safe…

Ironically, one of
the most important and controversial teaching of Jesus — is his command that
we should love our enemies.

He put it this way, 27 “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Luke 6: 27-28

How we respond to
this command of Jesus will determine
Christianity’s value to the world.

For centuries, many Christian traditions, believed the non- Christian religions of the world are our enemies.

In the Crusades, armies were literally sent to convert or kill out the non-believers

We sent send armies of missionaries to other countries and even in our own county convert them to our religion.

WE
SENT missionaries – and not just to make the heathens Christians – BUT our
brand of Christians…

Often
destroying their cultures in the process…

We
see some of the fall out from that today…

______________

Talking
with some members of the United Methodist Tradition – they experienced the same
issue concerning the international vote to marry and ordain members of the
LGBTQ that our denomination experienced –

The
more conservative/fundamental countries out number the progressive…liberal..
members.

A United Methodist friend said we only have ourselves to blame – when the more conservative nations around the world have not progressed to a liberal theology…

Before these countries had contact with the rest of the world —They had a more open theology But then our missionaries convinced them they were wrong…

____________________

Tolerance, acceptance and
welcoming of different faiths come at a high price and a deadly slow pace…

What would Christianity look like when it is stripped bare of the RELIGIOUS trappings?

When all of the formality – legality and restrictions are erased?

In the time of
Dietrich Bonhoeffer – the world was in turmoil with Hitler and the race war –

Bonhoeffer
began to struggle with what remains when the typical traits of a
religion—clergy, rites, holy things, beliefs, and morality—are eliminated.

How would that redefine Christianity? What bothered Bonhoeffer was that a person could confess doctrinally correct beliefs, observe its moral codes, and follow the accepted behaviors and practices of the Church, while simultaneously committing unspeakable horrors.

We
have witnessed the same thing in the American South—the “Bible Belt”—where
harassment, persecution and lynchings of African-Americans was a norm for
“white Christians.”

Where racial discrimination was justified by narrow minded interpretation of scripture.\

Example: Colossians 3: 22Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.

This was justification for slavery and continuing to discriminate against African Americans

___________

My heart tells me
whenever we err in how we interpret scripture – we should err on the side of
LOVE – not power…. Not exclusion – but love

I would rather explain my
loving the wrong person than my hating someone….

Houses of worship around the world, a place of reflection and peace, have been targeted for attack by extremists. Here are some of the deadly assaults over the last decade:

July 16, 2010: Jundallah group
kills 27 and injures 270 after it carries out a double suicide bombing against
another Shiite mosque in southeastern Iran.

Oct.
31, 2010: Al-Qaida in Iraq militants attack Our Lady of Salvation Catholic
Church in Baghdad during Sunday night mass, killing 58 people in the deadliest
assault targeting Christians since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion there. Al-Qaida
in Iraq later became the Islamic State group.

Dec. 15, 2010: Two suicide bombers
from the Sunni extremist group Jundallah blow themselves up near a mosque in
southeastern Iran, including six Revolutionary Guard commanders.

Aug. 5, 2012: Six members of the
Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, in Oak Creek, are fatally shot by a white
supremacist, Wade Michael Page. Page was shot by a responding officer and later
killed himself.

Nov.
18, 2014: Two Palestinians using axes, knives and a gun kill four Jewish
worshippers and an Israeli police officer in an attack on a Jerusalem
synagogue.

Jan. 30, 2015: Suicide bombing at
a Shiite mosque in the Pakistani town of Shikarpur kills 71. Jundullah claims
responsibility.

March
20, 2015: Islamic State suicide bombers attack a pair of mosques in Yemen’s capital,
unleashing monstrous blasts that ripped through worshippers and killed 137
people.

June 17, 2015: Nine black
worshippers including a pastor are killed by Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old white
supremacist, after he prayed with them in Charleston, South Carolina. Roof was
convicted of federal hate-crime and obstruction-of-religion charges and
sentenced to death.

Jan. 29, 2017: A gunman killed six
men during evening prayers at the Islamic Cultural Centre in Quebec City.
Alexandre Bissonnette pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and attempted
murder charges and was sentenced to serve 40 years in prison before being
eligible for parole.

April 9, 2017: Twin suicide
bombings rock churches in the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria and Tanta,
killing at least 45 people. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State group.

June
15, 2017: A suicide bomber kills four people at a Shiite mosque in Afghanistan‘s capital city of Kabul. Among
the dead is a leader of Afghanistan’s ethnic Hazaras, who are mostly Shiite
Muslims.

Aug. 1, 2017: A suicide bomber
storms into the largest Shiite mosque in Afghanistan’s western Herat province,
opening fire on worshippers before blowing himself up, killing at least 90
people. Hundreds more were wounded in the attack, which happened during evening
prayers.

Aug.
25, 2017: Militants storm a packed Shiite mosque in Kabul during Friday
prayers. The attack ends with at least 28 worshippers killed and 50 wounded,
many of them children. Two of the assailants blow themselves up and another two
are shot dead by Afghan security forces.

Sept. 29, 2017: A suicide bomber
blows himself up outside a Shiite mosque in Kabul, killing five. The attack
took place as worshippers were leaving the mosque after Friday prayers.

Oct.
20, 2017: The Islamic State group claims a suicide bomber attack, killing 31
and wounding 29 people, at a Shiite mosque in Kabul.

Nov. 5, 2017: Dressed in black
tactical-style gear and armed with an assault weapon, 26-year-old Devin Kelley
opened fire at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, killing
26 people and wounding about 20 others.

Nov.
24, 2017: Militants kill 311 worshippers in a mosque attack in north Sinai, the
deadliest such terrorist attack in Egypt’s modern history.

Dec. 17, 2017: Islamic State
attack on a church in Pakistani city of Quetta kills 16 people.

Oct. 27, 2018: A gunman believed
to have spewed anti-Semitic slurs and rhetoric on social media entered Tree of
Life Congregation synagogue in Pittsburgh and opened fire, killing 11 and
wounding six, including four police officers.

Jan.
27, 2019: Two suicide attackers detonate two bombs during a Mass in a Roman
Catholic cathedral on the largely Muslim island of Jolo in the southern
Philippines, killing 23 and wounding about 100 others. Three days later, an
attacker hurls a grenade in a mosque in nearby Zamboanga city, killing two
religious teachers.

March 15, 2019: At least 40 people
are killed in an attack at mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch.

By calling ourselves progressive, thinking Christians, we mean that we are Christians who recognize the faithfulness of other people who have other names for the way to God’s realm, and acknowledge that their ways are as true for them, as our ways are true for us.

Micah –also rebuked Israel because of dishonesty in the marketplace and corruption in government.

–He warned the people, on behalf of God, of pending destruction if ways
and hearts were not changed. He told them what the LORD requires
of them:

Act justly, love mercy,
walk humbly with God

Israel’s response to
Micah’s charges and threats consisted of three parts:

admission of guilt,

a warning of adversaries that Israel will rely on the LORD for deliverance and forgiveness,

and a prayer for forgiveness and deliverance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micah_(prophet)#cite_note-10

ACT JUSTLY – Golden rule –

UNJUST
LAWS

Some
of which are so ridiculous, they should never be enforced…

ALABAMA: The City of Mobile may know
how to throw down on Mardi Gras, but the use of confetti is strictly
prohibited. To carry, manufacture, sell, or handle the party supply is
considered an “offense against public safety.”

A frog that dies during a frog-jumping contest cannot be eaten in the
state of California.

INDIANA:
Liquor stores can’t sell refrigerated water or soda. The law specifies that a
beer and wine store should be in the exclusive business of selling adult
beverages.

KENTUCKY:
Every legislator, public officer, and lawyer must take an oath stating that they
have not fought a duel with deadly weapons.

ARIZONA
–Illegal for donkey to sleep in a bathtub

In CONNECTICUT … a pickle must be able to bounce.

In Nebraska … you can’t get married if you have a venereal disease.

In VERMONT … it’s illegal for women to wear fake teeth without their
husband’s approval.

___________________

I
am talking about UNJUST LAWS –

Like
the laws in our past:

INDIAN
REMOVAL ACT (1830)

Passed by Congress and signed by
President Andrew Jackson,
This law gave Jackson’s administration the ability to
“negotiate” with native American tribes (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek,
and Seminole), ostensibly forcing them to vacant the lands they held long
before the colonies or United States were established

FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT (1850)

Congress, largely controlled by
pro-slavery Democrats, passed the Fugitive Slave Act, which required that
runaway slaves be returned to their “owners” once they were captured.

CHILD LABOR LAW —The first group to fight for child Labor laws,
formed in 1906, and it was over ten years later that a law was finally
established.

USA PATRIOT Act (2001)

Passed and signed more than a month after
the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the USA PATRIOT Act (an acronym for Uniting
Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and
Obstruct Terrorism Act) gave the
intelligence community and law enforcement agencies broad new powers to combat
terrorism. Thanks to recent disclosures by whistleblower Edward Snowden,
Americans have learned that the PATRIOT Act has been
used by intelligence agencies, most notably the NSA, to snoop and spy on
American citizens, even if they’re not suspected of terrorist activity,
by obtaining phone and
Internet metadata from third-party businesses. Rep.
Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), who authored and introduced the PATRIOT Act, has said
that the government’s interpretation of the law is “excessive and
un-American” and supports efforts to put
better privacy protections in place.

Illegal for a black person to marry a white person – finally
struck down 1967 by Supreme Court

Illegal for American Women to vote until 1920.

TODAY

Ban
on Those entering country

Iran
Libya North Korea Yemen Somalia Venezuela Syria

_____________

RESTRICTIVE VOTING MEASURES have been enacted by states in recent years.
They range from laws demanding that voters produce specific forms of
identification to reductions in the number of locations where people can cast
their ballot.

California
city passed a law
banning the charitable act following a massive Hepatitis A outbreak.

police officer warned
the activists not to give food to the homeless in the park.

“It’s okay to give
food in public to other people but not homeless people,” he said,
referencing the city law, KGTV reports.

“That’s an unfair way of targeting the alleged
issue of hepatitis A.”

________________________

Justice is not merely about defending personal rights and condemning social evils.

Biblical justice starts in the heart.

It is inseparable from love and humility.

When we choose to walk in the light – to
follow the teachings of Jesus – to work to do God’s will…

We enter a covenant which means both parties
have obligations to the other…

Micah was reminding people of their part of
the bargain – of what GOD expects of a person who seeks Him.

God requires three ongoing actions:

Act
justly.

Love
mercy.

Walk
humbly with God.

acting justly

making fair decisions
in our business and personal lives.

Show each person the
same respect whether they are rich or poor / young or old / educated or
ignorant/ white or one of the million other shades of skin tones….

Do we treat people
better who are dressed in a suit and tie than if they are in drag?

However we treat one
another is how we treat God.

To Act Justly
requires we show others the same attention as we show ourselves.

We are to love
justice, not only when it harmonizes with our own interests… but we are to love
justice…more than ourselves…

if it ain’t right –
and I do nothing, then I ain’t right.

Pay attention to the
word REQUIRES – meaning NOT OPTIONAL

Eugene Peterson paraphrases in the MESSAGE – Do what is fair and just.

And that means, even when life isn’t fair to us…

We
are the only Bible some people read… we are the only Christ some people will
meet.

We
are the only example of a relationship with God, some people will ever
experience…

HOW
DO OUR ACTIONS DEMONSTRATE OUR LOVE FOR GOD?

Archbishop
Desmond Tutu said this:

If you are neutral
in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.

If an elephant has his
foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are
neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality. ~